To play Melate you pick 6 numbers from 1 to 56 on a ticket and wait for the draw, which is held on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. You can mark your numbers yourself or ask for a random selection. If your six numbers match the ones drawn, you win the top prize. In this guide we explain step by step how to play, how Revancha and Revanchita work, and how the prizes are paid out.
Step by step: how to play Melate
- 1. Pick 6 numbers from 1 to 56. You can choose them yourself or request an automatic selection ("quick pick").
- 2. Decide how many draws you want to play. A single ticket can take part in one or several consecutive draws.
- 3. Add Revancha and Revanchita (optional). For an extra cost, your same numbers enter two additional draws, each with its own jackpot.
- 4. Keep your ticket. It is your only record of the bet.
- 5. Check the results. On the night of the draw, compare your numbers with the winning ones in the Melate results guide.
How are prizes won in Melate?
Melate pays out prizes across several categories depending on how many of your numbers match the six winning ones:
- 6 matches: the top prize (the accumulated jackpot).
- 5, 4, 3 and 2 matches: prizes in the lower categories.
- Bonus number: in some categories, the bonus number helps determine the prize.
The order of the numbers does not matter: only how many match counts. The more matches you have, the higher the prize category.
Revancha and Revanchita
These are two optional draws played with the same numbers on your Melate ticket. Each one has its own jackpot and its own draw, and unlike Melate they do not use a bonus number. Adding them gives you more chances to win with the same selection, on the same date.
What about Melate Retro?
Melate Retro is a variant with a simpler format: you pick 6 numbers from 1 to 39 and it is drawn on Tuesdays and Saturdays. It works much like Melate, but with fewer numbers, which changes the odds and the style of play.
Tips for playing responsibly
Melate is a game of chance: every combination of six numbers has exactly the same probability of coming up, and no method guarantees a win. Always play for entertainment, with amounts that do not affect your finances, and remember that the statistics on frequent numbers are informational only: they do not increase your odds. If you want ideas for putting combinations together, you can try the AI Picks from MelateBot.
Understanding the cost and how to read your ticket
Each set of six numbers is a single bet, and you can play more than one bet on the same ticket. Adding Revancha and Revanchita increases the total cost because each one is a separate draw with its own prize pool, so think of them as two extra tickets that use the numbers you already picked. Before you leave the point of sale, check that the date, the draw numbers and your six numbers are printed correctly: the printed ticket is what counts, not what you intended to play. If you let the terminal generate a quick pick, your odds are identical to choosing the numbers by hand, since every combination is equally likely.
How to fill in your ticket step by step
The physical Melate ticket is filled in on a panel showing every number from 1 to 56. To play manually, you clearly shade the six boxes of the numbers you want; for example, you might mark 4, 11, 23, 30, 42 and 55. Mark each box well and do not select extra ones: if you fill in seven numbers on the same panel, that play becomes invalid and you will have to redo it. If you prefer not to decide, ask the seller for an automatic selection, known as the "máquina" (machine), and the terminal generates the six numbers for you. Neither method changes your odds, because every combination is equally possible.
Most tickets have several panels, so you can record more than one play on the same receipt. You could, for example, fill one panel by hand with your usual numbers and leave another to the "machine". Once your numbers are chosen, you decide how many consecutive draws you want to enter and whether to activate Revancha and Revanchita, which reuse exactly the same selection from each panel. If you play online, the procedure is equivalent: you tap or type your six numbers on the screen, or pick the random option, and confirm the play before the draw closes.
Common mistakes when starting out
At first it is easy to make slips that do not change your odds but can cost you a prize or your peace of mind. The most important is to look after your ticket: since it is your only record of the bet, protect it and do not throw it away even if at first glance it looks like you did not win, because you might have matches in a lower category. And when the night of the draw arrives, calmly compare every panel you played, without discarding any before checking all the prize categories. Another common slip is not confirming what you activated: if you wanted to play Revancha and Revanchita, or enter several draws, it is worth verifying at the point of sale before you leave.
Mistaken expectations are also common. Some people believe certain numbers are "overdue" and will therefore come up soon, or that copying figures from a previous draw changes something: it does not, because each draw is independent and all combinations have the same probability. Marking only birthday dates does not help either; it just limits your numbers to the 1-31 range, without improving or worsening your chances. The most serious mistake, however, is spending more than planned: set an entertainment amount before you play, respect it, and do not try to "recover" what you wagered in past draws. Playing calmly is part of doing it responsibly.
How many combinations does Melate have, and what does that mean for you?
Picking 6 numbers from 1 to 56 does not sound like much until you count how many different combinations exist. The calculation is the classic combinatorics of "56 choose 6", and the result is 32,468,436 possible combinations. Every one of them — from a tidy-looking 1-2-3-4-5-6 to the most scattered set you can imagine — has exactly the same chance of being the winning combination: 1 in 32,468,436. There is no "better" combination; there are only 32,468,436 equally valid tickets.
That number also explains why no selection method changes your odds of the top prize. Whether you mark your numbers by hand, ask for a quick pick, or mix both methods across different panels on the same ticket, you are choosing one point inside the same universe of 32,468,436 possibilities, weighted exactly like every other point. The difference between methods is convenience, not probability.
It is also worth separating two different questions: "will I win the top prize?" and "will I win some prize?". Not counting the bonus number, the probability of matching 3, 4, 5 or 6 of your six numbers on a single ticket is approximately 1.26%, or roughly 1 in 79 plays. That is a very different probability from matching all six numbers: winning some prize category is far more attainable than winning the top prize, even though the lower categories pay smaller amounts than the accumulated jackpot.
Are "overdue" numbers due to come up? The fallacy behind that idea
It is common to hear that a number that has gone several draws without appearing is "due" because "its turn has come." This idea, known as the gambler's fallacy, confuses two different things: the long-run behavior of many draws and the outcome of a single one. Each Melate draw is an independent event — the machine does not remember which numbers came up last week, so an "overdue" number carries exactly the same probability as any other in the draw that follows. There is no physical mechanism that "compensates" for a streak of absence.
Something similar happens with the sum of the six numbers you pick. If you add the integers from 1 to 56 and take the average, you get 28.5; multiplied across six numbers, the expected sum of a combination lands around 171. That means sums far from 171 — say, picking only low numbers (1 to 10) or only high ones (47 to 56) — are statistically less common across ALL possible combinations, simply because there are fewer ways to build extreme sums than middle-of-the-road ones. But that is a curiosity about the shape of the whole set, not a prediction: whichever specific combination you play, whatever its sum, keeps its individual 1-in-32,468,436 probability.
Patterns many players avoid (and why it changes nothing)
Another common habit is avoiding consecutive numbers — like 22 and 23 together — because they "don't look like" a real draw result. Across the full universe of combinations, roughly 55% contain no consecutive pair at all, so that pattern genuinely is a minority once you look at the whole set. But that describes the shape of the set, not the probability of your ticket: a combination with two consecutive numbers and one with none have exactly the same individual probability of coming up, because both are simply one in 32,468,436.
The same logic applies to parity. Split the 56 numbers into odds and evens, and a combination made of all six even numbers is rare — it happens in a little over 1% of possible combinations — while a more balanced mix of three even and three odd numbers shows up in roughly one out of every three. Again: this describes how many combinations EXIST with each pattern, not which one will be drawn. Chasing or avoiding a specific pattern does not move you closer to or further from the jackpot; it only changes what your ticket looks like, not its probability.
What this means for filling in your ticket
If no pattern changes your individual probability, the practical takeaway is simple: pick the numbers that feel most comfortable to you — birthdays, favorites, or random — without worrying about "breaking" a pattern you think is risky. The only decision that actually has consequences is how much you spend, not which numbers you mark. Two players with different budgets do not have different odds per combination: each ticket they buy takes part, separately, with the same 1-in-32,468,436 probability; buying more tickets does not "improve" a ticket, it simply adds more independent tickets to the same draw.
This also clears up a common question about playing several consecutive draws with the same ticket: each draw is a new, independent extraction, so your ticket does not "accumulate" probability from one draw to the next. Entering three consecutive draws with the same numbers gives you three independent chances, each carrying the same odds as always — neither higher nor lower for having played before.
Why Revancha and Revanchita don't use a bonus number
In the main Melate draw, the bonus number comes into play to separate prize categories when several tickets share the same number of matches among the six main numbers: it acts as a seventh piece of data that distinguishes, for example, a ticket with 5 matches from one with 5 matches plus the bonus number. Revancha and Revanchita, by contrast, pay out their prizes using only the six numbers from their own draw, without that extra layer. That does not make them "easier" or "harder" than Melate: how many prize categories exist and how they are organized is a decision about each draw's format, not a probability advantage for the player.
What all three draws do share is the base: they use the same 1-to-56 panel and the same mechanic of picking 6 numbers, so the odds of matching all six numbers for the top prize are the same in all three — 1 in 32,468,436 — because adding them does not change how many numbers are on the panel or how many you need to match. What changes is that you take part in three independent draws with three independent jackpots, instead of just one.
Frequently asked questions about how to play Melate
How many numbers do you pick in Melate?
You pick 6 numbers from 1 to 56. In addition, a bonus number is drawn that applies to some prize categories.
What days can I play Melate?
Melate draws take place on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. You can buy your ticket before each draw closes.
Can I choose my numbers or are they random?
Both options are valid: you can mark your own numbers or ask for an automatic selection.
Is it worth adding Revancha and Revanchita?
They are optional and cost extra; they give you more chances to win with the same numbers, but the decision depends on how much you want to play.
Is there any strategy to win for sure?
No. Every combination has the same probability and no method predicts the numbers. Always play for entertainment and responsibly.
Check the Melate results, see what time the draw is, or explore the draw archive.
Related guides
For entertainment purposes. No method predicts the winning numbers.